UAE: ‘No evidence’ to blame any country for oil tanker attack

 Abdullah Bin Zayed

27 June 2019; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed, yesterday said that his country could not hold any country responsible for the recent attacks on four oil tankers because of “insufficient information”.

Bin Zayed said during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Russian capital Moscow that, in order to hold any country responsible, the evidence must be “clear, precise, scientific and convincing for the international community”.

The minister added that there are preliminary discussions to form an international alliance on maritime security in the Gulf.

Earlier this month, the Twitter account of Al Arabiya news channel quoted Bin Zayed as saying that Iran’s fingerprints were clearly on May’s oil tanker attack. The UAE since seems to have backtracked on these accusations, calling for dialogue and an end to the escalation with Iran.